Arsenal 4 Stoke City 1: Match report

Arsenal 4 Stoke City 1: Read a full match report of the game from Emirates
Stadium.

Love is in the air: Arsenal fans gathered before the game to show their support for Arsene WengerPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

By Jeremy Wilson at Emirates Stadium

8:29PM BST 24 May 2009

A season at Arsenal that has been punctuated by moments of division, discord and disappointment has ended, ultimately, in harmony.

This match might have been largely irrelevant in the context of the Premier League, yet its significance in repairing strains in the relationship between Arsene Wenger and the club’s home fan-base felt considerable. With Real Madrid circling, there had been fears last week that Wenger’s 13-year marriage with Arsenal could end with nothing more than a 'quickie’ divorce. By Sunday evening, there was a clear sense that the respective wedding vows had been renewed.

Supporters had congregated before the match for what was called a 'solidarity march’ in honour of their manager and then, once inside a stadium that may never have been built without Wenger, they sang almost continuous tributes and unveiled a range of banners. One read: 'Arsene; On t’aime toujours’ (You are always loved).

Just the spectre of Madrid has jolted the fans and they were keen yesterday to place recent frustrations to one side. Having seen his team demolish Stoke, Wenger was also understandably rather more jovial than recent weeks. “It was good to have the crowd happy before we start next year,” he said. “Of course it made me feel appreciated. It makes me feel appreciative and even more regretful that we couldn’t give them this season what they want. It makes me even more determined to pay them back.

“The question we have to analyse now is 'are we strong enough like that to win the Championship next year?’ If not, what do we need to add to the squad?”

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Within 20 minutes yesterday, Arsenal were 3-0 ahead and they could conceivably have finished the match in double figures. The catalyst was Robin van Persie, whose outstanding performance as the lone central striker suggested Arsenal could happily contemplate life next season without Emmanuel Adebayor.

The Dutchman quickly combined with Cesc Fabregas to provoke an embarrassing own-goal from James Beattie before converting a penalty to put Arsenal 2-0 ahead following a rash Ryan Shawcross challenge.

Van Persie, whose contract negotiations remains ongoing, then crossed for Abou Diaby’s headed third and pounced on a horrible clearance from Rory Delap for the fourth. “We want to extend the contract of Robin,” said Wenger, “It’s our priority. He basically wants to stay and I want him to stay.”

Ricardo Fuller punished the only real Arsenal mistake from the penalty spot after being fouled by Denilson.